Tag Archives | National Basketball Association

Watching live NBA games this week there is one game that really stood out and drew media and online attention for all the wrong reasons: The Cleveland Cavaliers V Miami Heat game on March 29. Superstarter Lebron James didn’t feature in the pre-game announcements -apparently he was in the restroom – instead ‘appearing’ on the…

When Mark Cuban bought the Dallas Mavericks, they went from NBA laughing stock to perennial winners literally overnight. (Check the win-loss record for the year Cuban bought the team. It will blow your mind.) One of the many things Cuban brought to the organization that helped turn it around was a “No Excuses” policy. What…

The very first NBA All-Star Game ever was staged in 1951. This year the game will be celebrating its diamond anniversary, which is why the uniforms feature an integrated diamond pattern. Sunday’s game will go straight into the rich history of the NBA. As players and fans are making their way to the Staples Center,…

Michael Jordan is the epitome of sports career success. Not only is he one of the all-time greats on the court, he wields even more power off of it. In June 2010, Jordan was ranked by Forbes Magazine as the 20th “Most Powerful Celebrity in the World,” with $55 million earned. (10 years after his…

In 2010, we’ve seen professional athletes come a long way in social media, and perhaps there’s no better platform as evidence of this than Twitter. The amount of engagement in the last year going on in the space has been phenomenal but after doing polls on the top sports professionals and top sports resources of 2010,…

When we think of social media in basketball, a lot of names come to mind. Shaq was the pioneer. Steve Nash engages with fans with the same smoothness he does orchestrating the basketball court. Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh make announcements on Facebook. LeBron makes notes of his haters. The list goes on, but Kobe Bryant isn’t…

On July 8, 2010, LeBron James announced a decision – a decision to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers as a free agent and join the Miami Heat for the next six seasons. Lebron has never made it a secret that he wants to win and win badly. Aren’t we all granted the freedom of choice to…

It all started on October 29th during a game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Milwaukee Bucks. Minnesota Center Kosta Koufos missed an open jumper. Several players, including the Wolves’ Kevin Love and Wes Johnson, went for the rebound. Love was hacked, sending him to the free throw line. As Love prepared to take his…

As Director of Interactive Media for the Boston Celtics, Peter Stringer (@PeterStringer) oversees the social media entities of one of the NBA’s most successful, storied and beloved franchises. I caught up with Stringer recently and asked him about social media, engagement, mobile apps and how job seekers can help their cause through social media. What…

Welcome to the second week of the Overtime Post, where we take a light and sarcastic look at the week’s posts and other sports and business news around the world. Other than my Vancouver Canucks who have won six in a row (and I suppose I have to give the San Fransciso Giants a little…

(This is a guest post by Joseph Yi) While there are plenty of articles that discuss the advantages of running a promotion on Facebook, what few mention are the difficulties in actually getting a promotion that falls within Facebook’s promotions guidelines launched. In what can only be described as ambiguous and unclear, Facebook’s Promotions Guidelines…

Since most of you already know the story, I’ll make this as quick as I can. Feel free to skip through if you know the background. The last four or five months have been interesting for the King. After seven years in Cleveland and no championship rings, LeBron James decided it was time to leave.

In a prime time ESPN event called The Decision, LeBron announced to the world that he would be “taking [his] talents to South Beach” to play for the Miami Heat. Cavs fans were furious, their hometown hero (LBJ is from Akron, Ohio) was leaving them, having never delivered the championship he promised.

Basketball fans from all over were upset as well, mainly with how LeBron decided to handle the announcement. Even though the money raised during the show was then donated to the Boys & Girls Club of America, most thought it was a pretentious and selfish way to announce his decision.

Throughout the offseason, LeBron has come under a lot of fire. He’s been called out for quitting on his team in the playoffs, for leaving Cleveland, for The Decision. Dan Gilbert, the Cavs’ owner, publicized a nasty letter about LeBron.

Recently, LBJ came out and said he thought that all of the backlash from The Decision was partially a race issue, and that if he were of a different skin color, none of this would have been a big deal. Also, in the past few weeks, LeBron has retweeted several hateful and derogatory tweets, examples of messages he says he receives every day.

In the end, LeBron’s image has changed from a beloved NBA superstar, a hometown hero, and possibly the one-day greatest basketball player of all time to the biggest villain in the league (yes, above Kobe, he’s going to get booed everywhere he goes), a selfish superstar who betrayed his city for more money (smaller contract, bigger endorsements), more fame, and an easier championship ring.